Tuesday, November 17, 2009

The City of Hamilton used to put in a lot of traffic island flower gardens. The program started under Mayor Wade, I believe in the 1990's. Recent budget cutbacks have seen a number of them disappear in spite of the corporate sponsorship program. A couple of years ago, a few were filled with decorative gravel.

Earlier this summer someone from the Public Works department called to ask if there were any products that could be used on the traffic islands. This person said that the city had tried weed whacking the weeds. The hot water machine worked reasonably well, but the equipment was no longer usable.

Today while driving, I was struck by an island of green. Whoa, that's artificial turf!

Is this a new sponsorship deal? Or is this the new beautification program? No water, no fertilizer, no mowing, no weeds? Personally, my guess is that the weeds will eventually creep into the edges and seams, but who knows.

BUT, then, driving a little further down the street, another section of the road had another green facelift. Several islands that had been full of flowers earlier this year were not sprouting real grass.

Now the real grass looked fairly new. Not all of it has filled in. And it looked like it needed a trim. Maybe this was just a fall cover crop? Or is this the other side of the new traffic island program?

Really uneven and too long. A little lawn care is needed here.

What will they think of next? A lawn in the median will need some care, even if it is only to trim it once in a while.

I'm sure a few pounds of grass seed are a whole lot less expensive than growing petunias and begonias in the greenhouse and transplanting them into the traffic islands. Is this the new place for lawns?

If you
have a lawn/tree/shrub that needs some Tender Loving Care- get The KING OF
GREEN, the King of Lawn Care:

Flowering cabbage (pictured above) and flowering kale are not really flowers. Perhaps the term "ornamental cabbage" or "ornamental kale" would be better names.

In either case, these fall classics can brighten up your fall landscape in intriguing ways. Not only do they add a bright spot in the garden, they will last long after a heavy frost has taken out most of the other annual flowers. Flowering kale and cabbage need full sun and do best in the cooler temperatures of fall.

If you
have a lawn/tree/shrub that needs some Tender Loving Care- get The KING OF
GREEN, the King of Lawn Care:

Portulacaria are easy to grow bonsais for beginners. Here are a few photos of my largest specimen over the last several years.

November 2009- as it is now

Brought this Portulacaria bonsai in about a month ago. Still growing in response to the warmer temperatures inside. Sometimes it will drop a lot of foliage due to the lower light levels indoors compared to on the patio during the summer.

Here is a shot of it about 5 years ago, (July 2004) when I put it into a larger bonsai pot. This plant had been around for about15 years, just growing but cut back heavily.

Here it is in May 2007, just before being put outside in the sun. Notice that the foliage is sparse from the winter spent indoors.

By October 2007, the foliage has filled in a lot. Later on I lifted it up in the pot, and exposed some of the roots. The bottom area was cleaned up when I removed some of the "brush" at the base to make it more tree-like.